Yep, I managed to score entry from a friend who won four entries. I'll be doing the 55km route leaving at 06:30. Giving the single speed a run since I've done the Spring Cycle on my other bikes before .

You can register on the day - if only to be oficially counted so politicians know that cyclists exist in large numbers it would be nice.

It should be a nice ride in perfect weather, I live at the finish point, so have to do about 19kms to get to the start then wind my way back to the finish! Rest assured someone will log the ride as a Strava segment!

The real action is in SOP after the ride, check out the racing! Last year you could sit outside Gloria Jeans drinking Scientology coffee (poor joke) and cheer on the riders going full tilt around a very spectator friendly course.

If like me you get a bit excited by the noise expensive carbon wheels make and the smell of buring cork through the hairpin corners you need to be there!

It's a bit pricy but I'm thinking about going now, if only because I've been sick recently and missed ride to work day and probably shouldn't be racing again this weekend (so soon after being sick). Maybe I'll ride my race bike and see how I feel about the criterium when I get to SOP

The bigger problem is keeping B graders out of C grade and C graders out of D grade. The average C grader (including myself) would be better off losing 5 kilos to enhance their performance, rather than spending money on drugs. Then again, there are plenty of C graders running thousand dollar Zipps and Dura-Ace, so who knows.

I should start showing up to crits in a white lab coat to scare off the competition.

Was a decent ride. Good way to see Sydney on a nice morning...there was a bad crash on the way into SOP, bikes down, ambulance, blood - and I saw teeth - all over the pavement. I went through as the ambulance was leaving. Hope people weren't too badly hurt.

the wife and 1 started at 6.30 and finished about 9 its the longest ride ive done so far since buying the roadbike and it shows i have a long way to goi blame my little legs for my inability to keep up on hills, i cant believe just 14 years ago i was fit enough to do the gong ride on a bmx oh to be 22 again

i really enjoyed hitting 55 on the cahill expressway it was also midly amusing and embarrassing see a unicyclist keeping up in front of me i never did catch him

but on a serious note for someone who has a dislike for road riding due to being hit a few years back it was nice to do a long ride under semi controlled traffic conditions and would do more if these were put on

Fresh wrote:Was a decent ride. Good way to see Sydney on a nice morning...there was a bad crash on the way into SOP, bikes down, ambulance, blood - and I saw teeth - all over the pavement. I went through as the ambulance was leaving. Hope people weren't too badly hurt.

Owch, that's why I worked hard to stay towards the front of the pack, the speeds we were going at sometimes coupled with nobody really knowing the route and some unpredictable hazards and choke points had me very worried about a big stack. Made it there safe in the end though, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would especially the first section around the city still fresh and full of adrenaline pulling some good speeds.

Nice ride, need better signposts and to sort out the route a little bit more. Better than last year so happy overall.

I found myself in the second bunch to finish with Tony Abbott, and I could not resist kicking early to lead them over the line. We all know how competitive he is! Got introduced to him on the ride and he is handy on a bike.

There were nasty stacks, someone hit a bollard on the other side of the Rhodes railway bridge, a blood spraying from head style crash.

The route was changed at some point during the morning to channel people left into Olympic park instead of straight ahead and through Rhodes, must of shaved a few kms off the ride.

It did look like rain was coming in and also with the rider/s down maybe BNSW just made a call and chopped that tail end off the route.

Sydguy wrote:Nice ride, need better signposts and to sort out the route a little bit more. Better than last year so happy overall.

I found myself in the second bunch to finish with Tony Abbott, and I could not resist kicking early to lead them over the line. We all know how competitive he is! Got introduced to him on the ride and he is handy on a bike.

There were nasty stacks, someone hit a bollard on the other side of the Rhodes railway bridge, a blood spraying from head style crash.

The route was changed at some point during the morning to channel people left into Olympic park instead of straight ahead and through Rhodes, must of shaved a few kms off the ride.

It did look like rain was coming in and also with the rider/s down maybe BNSW just made a call and chopped that tail end off the route.

JM

I was in the group ahead of that one

I was all set for a dramatic sprint to the finish line but I found that it was way too dangerous over those cobbles/tiles for the last few hundred meters, don't know who's idea it was to finish on those but it was kinda annoying.

I came through a little later, and the Marshal was very vehemently trying to steer everybody onto theshort-cut. While I ignored her, half my work group was lagging a bit behind and followed her direction.

They didn't want to be short-sheeted, so they thought they'd do an extra 2 x 5k lap around the brickworks/ANZ/athletic stadium. By the time they'd done that, they realised no one else was getting misdirected, and decideto resume the "paid for" route. So they wound up doing 60K not 50K, and got their money's worth.

The misdirected group reckon she was telling them there was an accident ahead - but it was all clearas I went through.

Those of us that weren't sent the wrong way got to enjoy a very uncongested ride through Rhodes,Meadowbank and back across the Silverwater Bridge etc. Only downside was having to twiddle our thumbs whilethe others caught up, before heading off to the pub.

WombatK

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us -Jerry Garcia

Basically the short cut was only meant for stragglers from 1pm onwards, and the Marshall was incorrectly sending people that way. It had nothing to do with any accidents

Yep, I was one of those misdirected. Whilst at the time it was annoying, looking back it wasn't that bad. I'm just glad I tuned around and went all the back and continued the rest of the ride, instead of calling it a day then.

As it turned out got the rewoman out on the same track from Bicentennial Park around meadowbank and silverwater. I reckon I would have got lost if I hadn't done it before!

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